Sep 3, 2012 9:41 AM

Yesturday my 7 year old brother came home with a box full of these critters which he got from one of my neighbour's kids.

Its pretty clear to me that neither of them knows a thing about rearing caterpillars. But then nor do I. They came in an unsuitably airtight box and do not seem to be eating any of the greens placed inside.

With all babbling aside, can anyone please identify what these are? They are grey with black round heads and yellow tail, grey all over with small black spots and 2 rows of larger yellow spots. Legs are black with true legs significantly longer than the prolegs. I think it looks more like some kind of sawfly larve than a proper caterpillar but I'm not sure.

Yep, they're definitely berberis sawflies, which are basically introduced pests aren't they? I guess it would be irresponsible to try and continue to raise them and they certainly shouldn't be released.